Document E8jneaD1Mv3XQa2qXyQvvXG4

N50744 LET'S TALK ABOUT PAINTING condition, two coats will do the job. Over bare wood. three coats is the minimum number to insure good results. Talk it over with your painting contractor. Wood bared by paint failure becomes water- soaked, warps and swells, cracks and ultimately begins to rot and decay. Clapboards are twisted out of posi tion, breaking the seal that keeps heat inside the house, and cold drafts, and moisture, out. The first thing to demand of the paint you buy, therefore, is durability--protection of your property u r in g the long war years, comparatively few of D America's homes received the coats of new paint investment over a period of years. Except where weather conditions are unusually severe--assuming they needed. The "man of the house" was away at that paint has been properly applied--you can rea war. Skilled professional painters were hard to find; sonably expect good paint to last for from three to many of them were painting grim, utilitarian build five years. ings at bases scattered throughout the world; those The second thing to look for in the paint is hiding left behind were as severely overworked as doctors power--the ability of paint to cover an old surface and dentists. completely with minimum surface thickness. Paint But, this spring, the ladders and scaffolds are with good hiding ability covers more surface, and beginning to go up again--not in the numbers needed you save on labor costs. to handle all of the painting work that should be done Now--what about colors? The range is still lim --but enough to alleviate a good bit of the pinch. ited by restrictions on raw materials. However, you And although wartime shortages of many raw mate will find that the most popular shades are available. rials have been only slightly eased, more paints are In a recent poll conducted by the Du Pont Com being produced. Again, the increase is not sufficient pany at its Atlantic City Boardwalk exhibit, twenty to take care of all the painting home owners will want thousand visitors were asked to name the colors they to do, but it should allow for the completion of most liked best on their houses. The choice was from necessary painting work. twenty-seven body colors, and an equal number of If you are planning to paint your house, the best trim colors. way to begin is to call in a reliable painting con White, the overwhelming favorite as a body color, tractor. His knowledge can mean the difference be was selected by more than half the voters. Off-white tween a good or a bad paint job. tones, ivory, beige, buff and cream were next in pref When the contractor is actually inspecting the old erence. Then followed light blue, yellow, light gray paint film, and making up his estimate, walk along and light green, indicating a positive preference for with him. You'll learn a good bit about house painting. colors In the low range of tonal quality--colors that Notice that he looks for spots where the old paint create a friendly, cheerful effect. has scaled or peeled--where scraping is necessary. Green, light and dark, were first and second choice He'll probably want to know how many coats of paint as trim colors with white, followed by a royal blue. are now on the house. If the built-up paint coat is Regional voting leaned toward certain color com too heavy, another layer may prove to be the straw binations. The Southwest liked a deep coral body color that breaks the camel's back, may cause the paint with white trim. The West Coast voted for a cream to peel away of its own weight. house, trimmed with deep brown or Chinese red. The He will note loose boards, and inspect the house Northeast, with its frigid winters, liked Burgundy at a number of points--around windows, at joints, red. a deep warm color, trimmed with white. And under eaves--looking for moisture leaks. Moisture some "down-Easters" said they liked a pale yellow blisters and peels paint when the sun draws it out. house with a dramatic black trim. However, none of How many coats of paint does your home need? these opinions had sufficient strength to overcome If you intend repainting every year or two, one coat the general popularity of the traditional "white house may be sufficient. If the old paint surface is in good with green shutters." [10] LBW 0010877 DUP110137 67 6 The popularity of white paint hag led Du Pont laboratories over the years to give special attention to the development of improved white pigments. Ip. the past, when paint formulation was limited to mix ing a single pigment and linseed oil in a bucket, white house paint turned gray with soot and dirt from the air. Houses took on a grimy look, especially in smoky industrial cities. Today, the manufacture of better paint is a prob lem for the chemist. Years of laboratory research developed paints which made use of not one. but several pigments; combination-pigment paints, as they are called. The outstanding development in the pig ment field was the discovery of a process whereby ilmenite, a black sand, was transformed into a bril liant white pigment. The use of this new pigment, titanium- dioxide, makes possible the production of a white paint that is far whiter on application. But application whiteness isn't "next-year" white ness. So. Du Pont chemists had to find the answer to that problem, too.-They formulated a house paint that is literally "self-cleaning,'' a paint that sheds dirt and renews its originahwhiteness. This "self-clean ing" is accomplished through the formation of a microscopic film of fine white powder on the paint surface. This action begins several months after the paint is applied, and thereafter, through the life of the paint film, heavy rainstorms wash away the pow der, carrying with it the accumulated dirt and grime. The process itself is so limited in relation to the thick ness of the paint film that there is no noticeable shortening of the life of the paint. In addition to these advantages, paints pigmented with titanium have the advantage of intense hiding power and are more economical, and easy to apply. In industrial communities, where soot and dirt conditions are extreme, and in shady locations where the paint surface is not exposed to sunlight nor washed by rains, the process may be slowed, or even reduced in efficiency. Stains from copper screening-- they act as a dye on the paint--will not be completely washed away. '. For decades, trim paints have presented a chal lenge to the paint chemist's ingenuity. They faded badly after a short time, and dried slowly. Du Pont developed "Dulux" Trim and Trellis fin ishes to overcome these deficiencies. Today, "Du Pont T. & T." helps answer the problem of trim finishes. It incorporates fade-resistance, rapid drying, high gloss retention, and resistance to mildew and fungus growth. This, spring, these partners for Du Pont house paint are available in limited quantities. Cost of application is easily the most expensive item in house painting. For every dollar spent for paint you spend five dollars--and probably more-- to prepare the surface and apply the paint coat. Good paint may cost fifty cents more per gallon. Kence. if you need ten gallons to do the job, additional cost for quality and dependability is five dollars. But those five extra dollars may well mean the difference between positive protection for your home over a period of years a costly repaint job next year or the year after! In buying paint, as in buying any thing else, you gat just about what you pay for, but a cheap paint may mean extra expense. Paint has come far, since the days of mixing in a bucket, and paint will progress in the future. The constant search for improvement carried on in the chemical laboratories--will see to that. II LBW 0010878 DUP110137677